Over a campaign trail encompassing 20 counties, Thomas Massie, a former Republican Lewis County judge-executive has emerged victorious in Shelby County in the 4th Congressional District race.

Thomas Massie rolled to victory over William Adkins, a Grant County attorney, to replace Geoff Davis, a 4-term Republican incumbent. Shelby is new to the 4th District this fall.

In Shelby County, voters preferred Massie by a landslide, giving him 60 percent of the vote (9,186 votes) to Adkins’ 36 percent (6,575). Independent candidate David Lewis got 538 votes, for 2.98 percent.

That performance mirrored what Massie accomplished across the district.

Both candidates spent time on Election Day with family and friends, especially as the day wore on, Massie at a hotel near Cincinnati where a party was planned for him after the results came in, said his field representative, Stacie Lewis Rockaway.

She said after the Shelby results were in that she could not locate Massie for a comment.

Adkins, who chose a small lounge in Covington to wait for the results, said late in the afternoon that he was impressed throughout the day by what he was hearing about voter turnout throughout the state.

“I really haven’t heard any specific numbers, but anytime you have a good turnout, that’s typically good for Democrats,” he said just before the polls closed.

Adkins was not available for comment later, either, but his hopes no doubt plummeted as results began to come in, showing Massie ahead of him by a substantial margin.

Both candidates had made a strong showing in campaigning in Shelby this fall, more so than in the spring, appearing during the summer at several functions, both politically oriented as well as social events, including the Shelbyville Horse Show. Neither Adkins nor Massie attended the candidate’s forum held Oct. 22 at the Stratton Center, co-hosted by SCOPE and The Sentinel-News.

Both had been invited, but were unable to attend, because a debate between the pair, the one and only such event during the fall campaign, take place that same night on Kentucky Educational Television.

Adkins had enjoyed a landslide victory over Greg Frank of Corinth in the primary election, garnered 71 percent of the vote in Shelby County and 70 percent statewide, compared to Frank’s 31 percent in Shelby and 29 percent statewide.

Massie was also popular at the polls among Shelby Countians in the primary, with 50 percent of the county’s Republican vote, compared to 46 percent statewide.

Shelby is new to the 4th District, having been included after the redistricting that put the district mostly in the northeastern portion of the state, extending west to east, from Oldham County, and a portion of Jefferson County, to Greenup County and a portion of Boyd County, and north to south from Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties, to Shelby County and a portion of Spencer County.

“Getting to participate in helping to choose the congressional candidates is very exciting,” Shelbyville Mayor Tom Hardesty said.